LOTR Day

reasons why i'm okay w/ my "american accent" : {1} the coffee boy in wanaka this morning. i walk in and we each say "morning." hard to distinguish accent from that. then i order and he asks where i'm from (in an american accent of his own.) we chat. he was cute. it. was. FUN.

{2} our LOTR tour guide, bob (more on all that soon!), and my dad and i were talking about accents. he is from england, but his dad is a glaswegian. i said i didn't like my non-accent accent, and he disagreed. said my accent "is quite melodious, actually, i like the way your sentences go up on the end."



today was the LOTR big guided tour day. i really didn't know what to expect, to be honest. but if you get a chance to see where your favorite movie is shot, you take it. and i was NOT disappointed. so amazing!! i wish you all could experience it!! bob was our tourguide, already alluded to. he's 39, but so young at heart. his FT job is as a computer programmer, but this guy KNOWS lotr. he's hyper, but in a very friendly way. truly enjoyable. he picked dad and i up around 10am. the tour was executed flawlessly. w/in the van was a portable dvd player, w/ a special dvd cued up to the scenes (in order, of course) that we would be seeing the setting of. first stop was arrowtown. we saw some awesome scenes, of course, but also learned about the film's pre-and during-production fake name--"jamboree." apparently andy serkus almost didn't even apply for gollum/smeagol b/c the fake screenplay cover was so lame!! hahaha....



next was a treacherous road trip up to a river-view of where those giant king statues were. also learned a great story about orlando bloom/legolas. he was 17 when filming started. all actors had to sign agreements saying they would not participate in adrenaline sports while filming (nz is rampant w/ opportunities.) well, orlando did them all anyway. so they're filming the actors in the canoes going down the river. this river is fast and dangerous, esp around a bend. so, orlando tempts fate. and the boat goes under. and he plus 2 others almost were goners, but a nearby bungee-bridge's safety boat saved them. word.



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